Jungle Fever

Add safari to your wardrobe this spring.

Spring’s safari trend should have you on the hunt for African-inspired jewelry mixed with textured python and zebra prints as well as tanned leather and khaki. Keep the look from getting too utilitarian by adding a pop of vivid color, such as of-the-moment coral.

Designing Orange CountyFor special occasion handbag designer Mary Jo Matsumoto, it seemed like there just wasn’t a daytime handbag on the market that catered to the California lifestyle. “It was either really structured and meant for a city girl, or just so unstructured and boho in super drab colors like olive and gray,” she says. “I wanted something kind of in the middle.”

So Matsumoto began designing her first day bag line inspired by life along PCH. The result was high-quality handbags in on-trend color combinations named after Orange County beaches. Bags with names like the Ritz Cove bowler and the Balboa Island shopper are fun and functional. With light hardware, full lining and a strap long enough for any woman to fit her arm through, they’re the perfect Mother’s Day gift. She recommends shoppers in caramel or navy for moms that like to carry everything. “They’re great colors that will go from spring to summer and even take you into fall,” she says.

For the clutch-crazy woman (such as Matsumoto’s own mother), Matsumoto has some advice. “I’ve had a giant response to the knotted Crystal Cove clutch,” she says. “Everybody is putting that on their wish list.”

Moving InFashion Island will welcome Orange County’s first Roberta Roller Rabbit boutique this summer. Launched in 2003, RRR is known for bold and bright clothing and home accessories, which the retail space will showcase, with walls painted in signature yellow bands. Another Orange County first, the Diane Von Furstenburg boutique, is now open at South Coast Plaza on level one in the Bloomingdale's wing.

A Fabric ApartTwo years after launching Delano Wear, a active lifestyle line that is fashion-forward enough to take you from the gym to lunch with the ladies, mother and daughter duo Tamara and Britt Delano are poised to open their first flagship store in Corona del Mar in May.

“It’s going to be a beautiful boutique, very modern, very sleek,” says Tamara. “And it’s going to allow us to expand our line.”

Delano Wear’s current collection, which is inspired by the Newport Beach lifestyle, features classic pieces with lots of navy that mix and match easily. The line also makes heavy use of the Brazilian textile Supplex, which the Delanos and Delano Wear fans favor for its resistance to pilling, fading and stretching out. “Our fabric sets us apart from other brands,” Britt says. “And speaking with all of our customers, there is no way we could ever change it. Everyone loves it.”

But that doesn’t mean you can’t expect to see cashmere and cotton incorporated into the newest collection, set to launch along with the opening of the store. “We are going to add, but not take away,” Tamara promises.

The new collection will also feature an on-trend pastel palette. “We’ll have mermaid colors, aqua, sea foam green, lilac, and a bright pink.”

Something else they see in the future: a men’s line. “You want them to look good too, right?” says Tamara.